In March 1923, six weeks before the end of the civil war, the execution
of republican prisoners by the Free State regime reached its height.

By the autumn of 1922 all republican resistance in Dublin was crushed
and the fighting spread to the provinces. In the North-West an IRA
active service unit led by Charlie Daly, O/C 2nd Northern Division,
carried on a guerrilla war against the Free State forces.

Daly, a native of Knockanescoulter, Firies, County Kerry, joined the
Irish Volunteers in 1914. As adjutant of Firies Battalion, IRA, he took
part in many successful attacks on RIC barracks in County Kerry in the
early months of the Tan War.

In September 1920 he was sent by Cathal Brugha, Minister for Defence, to
organise the IRA in Counties Derry and Tyrone and worked closely with
Sean Larkin of County Derry, whom he appointed Brigade Adjutant during
the following months. Arrested in January 1921, he was interned at
Collinstown Camp, County Dublin, until the Truce in July.

In anticipation of the renewal of hostilities, Daly, following his
release, used the six-month-long truce for intensive training of IRA
Volunteers in his area. The IRA was re-organised into divisions and he
was apponited O/C 2nd Northern Division, covering Derry and Tyrone.

CROWN FORCES ATTACKED

Daly and Larkin were among the first to reject the Treaty in December
1921. While on a brief visit to Kerry at Christmas 1921, Daly appealed
for Volunteers to assist the beleaguered nationalist population in the
North. Among those who answered his call were Tim O’Sullivan of
Aughatubrid and Dan Enright from Listowel - two experienced Volunteers
who had been in action against the Black and Tans.

During the early months of 1922 IRA units under his command concentrated
their forces along the Donegal border and launched attacks against the
crown forces in the Six Counties.

Following the outbreak of the Civil War in June 1922, Daly tried to halt
the spread of the conflict, but when Free State attacks on republican
garrisons intensified, he and his comrades, including Larkin, O’Sullivan
and Enright, had no option but to defend the republic in arms.

Gathering together the remnants of his division which still believed in
the republic, Daly and his vice-commandant, Frank Carney, crossed the
border into Donegal to oppose Free State troops marching on Sligo. The
small force of republicans in Donegal held out for only a brief period
before being compelled to withdraw to the mountains.

On 2 November 1922, during a general swoop by Free State troops, Daly
and members of his column, including Larkin, O’Sullivan and Enright,
were captured in the shadow of Errigal mountain. Imprisoned in Drumboe
Castle, they were court-martialled and sentenced to death the following
January.

In mid-March 1923 the four Volunteers were marched from their cells in
Drumboe Castle to an improvised firing range about 300 yards up a gently
sloping field in the woods at Drumboe and shot by a Free State firing
squad.

The Drumboe Martyrs were executed on 14 March, 1923.

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